Why do I blog?

I love photography and writing. Through these mediums I would love to share my journey with you, to inspire, inform and sometimes entertain you. I hope to encourage you to take your own trip and to ensure that when you do that you are as prepared as possible to make it the best trip of your life! I want to share with you the realities of travel – the good and the bad, no sugar coating. Life isn’t perfect, neither is travelling especially when you do it often or long-term.

I love sharing photography and writing from my travels.

About Me – My Personal Journey So Far

When I found out that I had foreign heritage as a child, the realisation that there were other places in the world that I could one day visit them fascinated me! I grew up writing lists of places I wished to visit based on my limited knowledge acquired from my atlas for kids. This intense wanderlust eventually led to spending many late nights indulging in foreign films as a teenager.

Thrust into the working world at age 15 (by choice) and eventually working full time after graduating at 17 I got a taste of a life I really didn’t want to have, this took me many years to realise. I went to university while continuing to work part-time because I found just working to be boring and while this quenched my thirst for knowledge for some time the end game wasn’t quite my end game.

Enjoying Frittes in Maastricht while studying abroad in 2015.

When I got my first taste of travel

While I gained a Bachelors degree in Applied Science (Psychology) graduating with distinction, my most valuable experience ended up being studying abroad in The Netherlands as part of my degree. It is was an intensive course in Positive Psychology – essentially, the study of happiness, this is where I began to get the courage to follow my bliss and my dreams. It also led to me travelling solo for several months around Europe and later living in Germany (German is my second language FYI).

In Lake Bled in Slovenia on my first Eurotrip.

After returning to Australia, I knew exactly what I wanted. Two short follow up trips made me hungrier for a nomadic life. I intensely saved money as soon as I got a job while exploring my own backyard on a budget as I worked towards living my dreams. I have been enjoying my intoxicating freedom since I began living this unconventional lifestyle and I am working towards making this a sustainable way of life.

My Style of Travel & Travel Goals

I want to explore every single country in the world but don’t get me wrong, I am not living to tick off a list to say I’ve done x, y, z. I don’t do things for the sake of it or to earn ‘bragging rights’. My travel style is a combination of living very deliberately and mindfully. I am selective about how I spend my money and time.

I am driven by a desire for experience and learning

I’m experience focused. I strive to have enriching experiences while travelling as slowly as possible. Travelling slowly allows me to get to really know a place and as a result dispense well-informed travel advice. It also gives me time to build a nice collection of photographs and personal stories. I like to have authentic cultural experiences and do activities that local people actually recommend doing. Not just do things that were created solely to grab money from tourists. I want to learn, I want to see how other people live, sometimes I even like to blend in for a moment and see what it feels like. I mostly work with a small budget, sticking to free and affordable activities. Occasionally, I spend big on experiences and things that are personally important or interesting to me.

Mindful Travel

I like to call my personal style of travel ‘mindful travel’ because my favourite way to travel is to simply ‘be’ in a place, which means simply to wander with curiosity, without any goals and for me, that is where the magic happens. I am free-spirited and impulsive and so are my travel plans, you won’t see me planning too far ahead.

What’s Next?

After months of travel around Europe this year and visiting my family in Australia, I am currently based in Montenegro with my boyfriend, Marko. My upcoming blog posts will feature destinations in Italy from my recent road trip and the Balkans.

A recent photo I took in Herceg Novi, Montenegro.

I hope I can inspire you to choose your own adventure :).

Mikki

Hi, my name is Mikki! I travel slowly and on a budget, in search of authentic cultural experiences, hidden gems and epic natural wonders. Travelling slowly allows me to bring you well-informed advice, along with a plethora of personal tales and travel photography. I hope to inspire you to choose your own adventure, not a cookie cutter one!